Side delivery rakes are commonly used to form long windrows or to combine smaller windrows into larger windrows so that a baler, stacker or the like can pick up the windrow and package it into bales, stacks or the like. One of the most common types of side delivery rakes is commonly referred to as a wheel rake and has a plurality of wheels with evenly spaced teeth extending radially outwardly therearound. Normally a plurality of these toothed wheels are disposed in overlapping relationship with each toothed wheel being disposed forwardly and to one side of the next toothed wheel. These toothed wheels are movable about an axis to move hay rearwardly and to one side as the rake moves forwardly. This wheel-type rake is produced by several companies in Italy and is a common rake imported into the United States. Because farms are small and tractors are small in Italy, these wheel rakes are small in comparison to most side delivery rakes sold in the USA.
One Italian company has developed a frame adapted to be attached to a large tractor's three point hitch and two of these rakes are placed together on a frame to form a V-type rake. This is used to rake hay inwardly and rearwardly on the right side and the left side to produce a single and larger windrow as the V-rake travels through the hay field.
A problem associated with the imported V-rake attached to a single frame and to a tractor's three point hitch is that it must be manually folded between its transport or storage position and its operative field position. Because this is done manually, it is inconvenient. The market for this product is still considerable because it is much cheaper than side delivery rakes of a similar size produced by some of the major U.S. manufacturers.
Another problem with the aforementioned V-rake is that if a tractor passes over a rise in the terrain, such as a terrace, as the front end of the tractor goes down, the rear of the tractor will go up and this will cause the rake, which extends some distance behind the tractor's three point hitch, to lift high in the air and not rake the hay thereunder at such time.
Consequently, there is a need for a wheel-type rake apparatus which takes advantage of the more economical costs of wheel-type rakes and yet overcomes the problem of awkward manual folding and cantilevered mounting off of the back of the three point hitch which may cause certain portions of the field to not be raked efficiently.